Discipline powers
__NOEDITSECTION__ This is a collection of rules clarifications regarding specific Disciplines and Discipline powers. Whenever you clarified something with staff, please add it to the list so that everybody can refer to it Auspex= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Auspex (WIP, confirmed by staff 12/07/14)' Auspex has a passive effect, which allows you to Clash of Wills against anyone in Obfuscate without being consciously aware of them. (This is why the roll to determine if you are surprised when combat starts is Dexterity + Stealth + Obfuscate versus Wits + Composure + Auspex.) Uncanny Perception • Please formulate your answers in terms of imagery or other stimuli, especially when the answer is not an unequivocal 'yes' or 'no'. Legit questions: * Is this person affected by specific Condition X? * Who inflicted Condition X on this person? (Once you know that they have the Condition) * Is this person under a Vinculum, and if so, to whom? (Will only show 2- and 3-stage Vinculums, and only one per success, starting with the strongest) * How does this person feel about specific topic/person? * Is this person under any foreign supernatural effects? (Foreign being those imposed by someone other than themselves.) * What blood magic is this person affected by? (One per success, starting with the highest level ritual and moving down by Potency) * Is this person being deliberately deceptive right now? * Has this person's memory been tampered with? * What does this person want from me/the person they're interacting with? Stuff that doesn't work: * What is this person's biggest secret? * What does this person intend to do about a specific topic/person? * Did this person do X? * How did this person do X? |-|Celerity= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Celerity (WIP, confirmed by staff 12/08/14)' When you use Celerity to interrupt the action of another character, your opponent must continue his declared action if it is still possible, and may not take a different action if it is not. As multiple reflexive actions can be made in a turn, however, he may still take other reflexive actions, before or after completing his declared action. Thus, for example, it is possible to avoid a blow by using Celerity to interrupt and moving away from your opponent, but only if you can move further away than your opponent can reach with his reflexive movement. |-|Dominate= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Dominate (WIP, confirmed by staff 12/07/2014' The victim must be able to see the vampire's eyes. The vampire must be aware of the victim but is not required to see their eyes, which means they may attempt to Dominate an Obfuscated or otherwise hidden target if they have reason to know the target is there. This applies to all levels of Dominate: it is not possible to Possess someone on the other side of town. Deliberately avoiding eye contact applies a -3 penalty to someone attempting to use Dominate. In combat, you are treated as having one eye blinded with regards to that character. Being literally unable to see the Dominate user's eyes prevents them from using the Discipline on you at all. This includes methods such as the target shutting their eyes, wearing a blindfold, using Extra Senses (Protean ••), or gouging out the vampire's eyes with an ice cream scoop. |-|Majesty= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Majesty (WIP, confirmed by staff 10/05/14)' Awe • Awe does not give a character carte blanche to do whatever they want without the possibility of repercussions. Social rolls may still be appropriate; the Awe user simply does not take penalties for actions or appearances, and adds their Majesty dots to Presence rolls. RP-wise, treat the Awe user like they're a superstar you really like. When Lady Gaga shows up in a dress made of meat it's avante garde rather than being insane. Chris Brown can beat his lover half to death and still have girls swooning over him. You should actively try to interpret their actions in the best possible light, and to forgive any social faux pas you can. Summoning someone to your side is a tempting invitation rather than a mystical compulsion. If the character does not want to accept it, the Wits + Composure roll (minus your dots of Majesty) is appropriate as a roll to resist that temptation and continue about what they were doing. This same trick can be used to coax someone out of Obfuscate. Lashing Out If you successfully lash out against someone using Awe, you are personally unaffected by Awe however Awe remains active (As per the book). Clash of Wills If several people activate Awe in the same scene and come into conflict through the use of their Awe, a Clash of Wills will determine which Awe sways the room. Confidant •• / Charmed The subject should ask themselves what they would do for their best friend. If the subject is a trained hitman who is loyal to his friends and has an anger issue, chances are that this might include really ugly things. If you're being asked to do something you wouldn't agree to even if it was your best friend asking, you still won't do it. Confidant cannot be used on a target in Obfuscate. Green Eyes ••• In contrast to Dominate, Green Eyes does not issue specific commands that have to be followed to the letter. Instead, it creates a strong desire in the subject to do something for you with all his heart and passion. If you ask the subject to hit somebody, the subject really wants to hurt that person and not just nudge them on the shoulder. If you ask the subject to kiss you, the subject wants to make out hungrily no matter the circumstances, not give you a light kiss on the cheek. If the subject is Charmed, her condition resolves when there is a clear and potent threat of lethal damage or a naturally-occurring breaking point. If the subject is Enthralled, the condition does not resolve until after experiencing the damage or breaking point. Loyalty •••• / Enthralled Casual players are still subject to Conditions like Enthralled, but if something looks as though it will make permanent changes to their character it's encouraged to discuss it with them OOCly. Exceptional successes may be downgraded to normal successes if Casual players are particularly uncomfortable; if this happens you are still allowed to impose a Condition. An Enthralled subject may spend 1 WP and roll for a Humanity 1 breaking point. If they succeed at this roll they may defy that one command, and may consider themselves immune to it if they're ordered to the same thing again, even if different words are used. This does not resolve the Enthralled condition; as per the book, it allows the subject "to take an action that goes against their master's commands." Actually breaking the condition requires succeeding in an involuntary breaking point (which is only rolled after the fact), or taking appropriate damage. Idol ••••• Breaking Points The list of breaking points is not comprehensive, but players are encouraged to be reasonable about how damaging something is to their own self-identity. For most people, slapping a friend in the face is as uncharacteristic as shoplifting (Humanity 7), but it does not constitute 'causing serious injury to another person' (Humanity 5), which is at the same level as 'the death of a mortal family member' or 'enduring torture'. For others, committing adultery would be more of a challenge to their identity than committing murder. Only the player can accurately judge how deeply something strikes at their character's identity, and other players are encouraged to accept this judgement. If they are willing to risk their Humanity rather than fulfill the temptation you have instilled in them, it is clearly important enough to their character that it should be considered a breaking point. |-|Nightmare= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Nightmare (WIP, confirmed by staff 10/05/2014' Nightmare, the signature discipline of the Nosferatu, is designed to be used from hiding. Dread Presence • May be used from Obfuscate, and the vampire need not be aware of their victim/s. Face of the Beast •• May be used from Obfuscate, but the vampire must be able to see their victim. It is considered an attack, and breaks the vampire's Obfuscate (for the target) when used. The Grand Delusion ••• May be used from Obfuscate, but the vampire must be able to make (mental) contact with their victim, and can therefore not use it on an obfuscated target. It is considered an attack and breaks the vampire's Obfuscate (for the target) when used. Waking Nightmare •••• May be used from Obfuscate and may affect obfuscated targets. It is considered an attack (though an area attack) and therefore breaks the vampire's Obfuscate (for the target/s) when used. Mortal Terror ••••• May be used from Obfuscate, but the vampire must be able to see their victim. It is considered an attack, and breaks the vampire's Obfuscate (for the target) when used. |-|Obfuscate= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Obfuscate (WIP, confirmed by staff 04/04/2014' Obfuscate, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It does not work on electronic devices, though it does work on a person viewing through an electronic device providing they do so in real time. The Lost Visage is an instinctive protection mechanism, and can be consciously over-ridden without any expenditure of Willpower. For example, a vampire may make a commercial, directly addressing the camera, and be unaffected by the Lost Visage, but there's no usable cutting room floor footage from moments she didn't know she was being filmed. Face in the Crowd • This is social invisibility, not physical invisibility. It makes you bland and uninteresting, unless there's a reason for that not to be the case. If they expected to be alone in the room, Face in the Crowd won't stop them from noticing you (with a successful Wits + Composure - Obfuscate roll). If, however, their eyes were following you after you left their company, and you activate Face in the Crowd as you step out onto the street, their eyes slide off you. It's a momentary inattention. The fact that they're specifically looking for you doesn't necessarily change this, though they're welcome to roll a Clash of Wills (Auspex + Blood Potency). They're looking for you specifically, and you no longer register to the eye as looking like you - you're just an average joe. It is not possible to activate the part of Face in the Crowd that turns your predatory aura inward without activating the rest of it. That means you are either recognizably a vampire to other vampires, or you are no-one worth noticing. Touch of Shadow •• Making your weapon effectively invisible does not mean you can forget about it. If you have a honkin' big-ass broadsword strapped to your back, you can't lounge on a sofa. If your poses have made it impossible for you to be carrying the object, you may be prevented from suddenly 'having' it when you remember you want it. Cloak of Night ••• It does not cost additional Vitae to use Touch of Shadow on other people with this power. Touch of Shadow already costs one Vitae, which means it does cost one Vitae. This makes the target one of the Faceless Crowd, but not truly invisible. A second point of Vitae makes them invisible. Cloak of Night is the closest vampires get to true invisibility. It breaks when you attack someone, but only for the victim of your attack. You will still show up on electronic recordings, as per normal, unless (as is likely) the Lost Visage corrupts them. Clash of Wills Auspex directly counters Obfuscate, but succeeding on the Clash of Wills to break someone's Obfuscate does not necessarily mean you can see them if they are also hiding (or hiding an object on their person, etc.). After breaking the Obfuscate, you must still succeed on a normal Perception test (Wits + Composure) vs their Wits + Stealth or Dexterity + Stealth, whichever is more appropriate for their method of hiding. |-|Blood Sorcery= __NOEDITSECTION__ Blood Sorcery has three aspects, which limit the virtually limitless potential into something more reasonable (but still freaking awesome): # Themes. Each theme is graduated, 1-5, and allows certain effects. # Style. Cruac interprets these themes differently than Theban Sorcery does, for example. # Motifs. All forms of Blood Sorcery have three motifs that characterize their brand of magic. Published rituals already include all three aspects. Improvised rituals must also meet the requirements and limitations of all three to be legal. For learning Blood Sorcery, Themes, or published rituals please refer to the respective sorcery type such as: Cruac Rituals or Theban Rituals. To this we've added several House Rules and clarifications. # The Potency of a ritual is limited by the caster's dots in the relevant Discipline. Thus, someone with Cruac 3 can raise the Potency of the ritual to 3 by committing to extra successes, but not to 4. # Additional successes can be applied to any ritual factors when casting a learned ritual. If casting an improvised spell, any additional successes are lost. Additional successes may be applied to Potency, even if that brings the Potency in excess of the caster's discipline dots. # Even blood sorcery does not transcend the usual rule that restricts circumstantial bonuses (such as equipment) to +5 at most, or bypass the limitations imposed by Blood Potency (unless the spell is specifically designed to do so). # The total number of improvised effects a caster can have going at any one time is limited by her dots in the relevant Discipline. Learned rituals do not contribute to this number. Thus, someone with Theban 2 could have two improvised effects and four rituals up simultaneously, but could not have three improvised effects and three rituals going. # A single instance of a learned ritual may be cast at a time, which uses this 'slot'. If you wish to cast a second instance of a learned ritual before the first expires, you must treat it as an improvised effect. # A spell's duration is set at casting. It cannot be peremptorily cut short. # A ritual is either Exceptional or not. If an Exceptional success is achieved at any point during casting, one of three effects can be applied: ##Reduce the target number of successes by your dots in the discipline. ##Reduce the time per roll to 15 minutes (or to 5 minutes if your discipline level is higher than the ritual level); ##Apply the Ecstatic or Raptured Condition if and when the ritual succeeds, as appropriate. # Anyone who wishes to use Improvised magic should select two descriptors for each of their motifs, appropriate to the god/dess they worship. For example, a worshiper of Ishtar might have lions and blades (wild), rage and quakes (corrupting), sex and drugs (pagan). A worshiper of Erzulie Dantor, on the other hand, might have pigs and knives (wild), animal sacrifice and cannibalism (corrupting), vevres and voudoun (pagan). When creating an improvised spell, it should invoke a number of keywords equal to its rank. Thus, a level 4 ritual should invoke four keywords. Custom rituals will not be approved without these keywords having been specified. |-|Resistance= There are three means of resistance for powers used against you, though only one is applicable for most given powers. Contested; resistance is reflexive In most cases, when a Discipline is used against a person it's a contested roll. This is written as Dice Pool: X vs Y. For example, if Debonair Rival wants to use Confidant on Vampire Bill and has 8 dice while Alice has 4, then they both roll their pools and the one with the most successes is the winner. You do not subtract the successes; if Debonair Rival rolls 5 successes and Vampire Bill rolls 4, the roll is an exceptional success and the Charmed Condition last for nights rather then hours. A contested action uses your turn just like an instant action. Resistance is reflexive, and thus does not use a turn. It is possible to spend Willpower for +3 dice to resist only if the target is aware that a power is being used. Resisted Some powers are resisted rather than contested. This is written as Dice Pool: X - Y. For example, see Entombed Command (Dominate 3). This happens in the rare cases where the number of successes determine the strength or duration of the effect. None Some powers cannot be resisted. For example, Uncanny Perception (Auspex 2) is a kind of supernatural perception. There is neither resistance nor contest. Powers that either require no roll or are neither resisted or contested are usually subtle, and their use can pass without notice.